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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Welcome to the Virtual Book Tour for Cover of Darkness, a dynamic thriller by Gregory Delaurentis. Enjoy the post and the book excerpt. And don't forget toenter the rafflecopter giveaway below the author's links. One randomly chosen commenter will win a $50 Amazon/BN gift card.WHAT KIND OF WRITER AM I? by Gregory DelaurentisI am a determined writer, that’s the best way that I can put it. I remember the recent past where I toiled under the shadow of traditional publishers. I wrote query letters to agents and editors, and the publishing houses themselves, pitching book after book. I jumped genres to see which one I was good at and got rejection letter after rejection letter. I started to build a folder of them just to see how many I would collect. The folder bulged into three folders full of rejection letters. This can easily be disheartening because many of the letters weren’t even written or personally typed. The few that were at least were encouraging, admonishing me to continue writing. My book just wasn’t what they were looking for at this time, and then there was a signature on the bottom.
However, the vast majority of the rejection slips were poor photocopies of photocopies and I had the feeling that my query wasn’t even considered by whomever I sent it to. My envelope was simply opened; the SASE stuffed with a copy of a rejection letter and then sent off. I went through years of this humiliation, yes, I call it humiliation, but I continued to write, continued to try to hone my craft, and worked hard to be a better writer with each keystroke.
I have a dogged determination to succeed in whatever I do, because I believe in myself. When the avenue for Indie-publishing opened up, I studied it. This was my opportunity to slough away the middle man and search for my fans up front and personal. I wanted to be attainable to them personally and not through some monolithic corporation distilling my writing and literally absorbing all of the profits. An unfair system all the way around. I wanted to circumnavigate it and push off on my own, to which I did.

What kind of writer am I? I am one that will not give up, and one that believes in himself enough to undertake this adventure of indie-publishing with no safety net. If I receive a rejection this time, it’s from someone who has taken the time to read my work and criticize it, and not someone sifting through a pile of query letters, only to send them back practically unopened.

COVER OF DARKNESS
By
Gregory Delaurentis

BLURB:

A high profile murder of a Wall Street executive in Westchester pits three people against the criminal underbelly of Manhattan nightlife. The key players are two ex-cops turned private investigators—Kevin Whitehouse, whose sharpest tool is his keen analytical mind, and David Allerton, a former Special Forces operative—and Margaret Alexander, Kevin’s lover. In their search for a killer, they are forced to travel to the edge of sanity and morality, while stumbling onto their own confusing secrets as well. The Cover of Darkness is a gritty noir saga that untangles a web of deceit in the course of tracking down a brutal murderer.

EXCERPTDavid first opened the door to a closet on the left, searching it with the gun muzzle, before approaching the door at the end of the hall and kicking it open. An angry, naked man stood on the other side, his anger changing to fear in seconds once he beheld the gun pointing in his direction. “Get back into bed,” David ordered. The pale-bodied man responded as he staggered backward. The foot of the bed struck the back of his knees, sending him seated on the mattress. The woman on the bed had by this time covered herself with the sheets, and curled her legs up.While Kevin stood nervously in the doorway, David searched the room and the closets, the muzzle of the shotgun again serving as a probe, but found no one. “What the…?” Chase asked David.After searching through the room, David tossed the shotgun to Kevin.Suddenly, Chase went white-hot heat, crawling backward into the arms of his woman in sheer panic screaming, “What do you want?!”“I want information,” David demanded, going to the foot of the bed, standing before them with Kevin directly behind him. “I want to know who whacked Osterman.”“How am I to know?!” Chase shouted back. His hair was a wild tangle, his eyes wide as saucers with fright.“Don’t yell at me,” David said calmly. “I want answers. I’m not interested in killing you.”“You bust into my crib and start throwing guns around. You’re crazy, man, what do you think I’m thinking?”“You were moving dope for Osterman,” David persisted, ignoring Chase’s remarks. “Osterman! He jerked me.”“With the Colombians.”“Damn right.”“And you didn’t like that.”“No, I didn’t.”“So, you had one of your soul brothers do him in.”“Oh hell, no. My people don’t kill. We don’t mess with weapons like you do.”“And the reason for that?”“More jail time . . . What are you? A cop?”“Don’t worry about what I am,” David growled back. “You are moving weight. I want to know what happened after Osterman jerked you.”“He jerked me. That’s all.”“That’s all? You didn’t go to the Colombians? Liar!”“Yes, yes, I did that!” Chase corrected. “I went to the Colombians as soon as I knew he jerked me. I begged them to give me another chance. They said they would, if I replaced their one hundred kilos. One hundred kilos! How do I do that?”“Put bullets into Osterman for revenge.”“How is that going to get me my one hundred kilos?”“Let me explain it to you, genius. The Colombians trust Osterman enough to give him a heavy shipment. You find it, whack him, and take his shipment back to the Colombians. Paid in full.”
Chase thought that over for a second or two. “But that’s not what happened.”“Convince me otherwise.”The word “Freeze!” were suddenly heard from the doorway. David frowned as he glanced over his shoulder to see a scruffy looking black male, armed with his own shotgun.